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Who we are

Who we are

LauraSeptember 30, 2014October 23, 2014

Meet Jacob Hansen

This is Jacob Hansen. Jacob was born and raised here in Arizona and grew up in Arlington. His parents and brother still live in Arlington and the area holds not only a special place in Jacob’s heart but has a beautiful view of Saddle Mountain.

Jacob fell in love with the Goodyear blimp when he was very young. So much so that he wrote many, many letters to the Goodyear Tire Company. The company responded and offered for him and his family to ride on the blimp. Then and there began his love of flying. He took flying lessons as a boy and got his pilot license as a young man. Jacob dreamed of being in the air force but a childhood injury kept that dream from coming true. However, that did not hinder his love of aircraft. Jacob has owned his own airplane and worked in and around airplanes for different companies his entire life.

Shortly after marrying his wife Laura, she bought him a homebrew kit and Jacob started brewing his own beer at home. After 15 years of homebrew and three children later, Jacob decided to expand his dream and open a craft brewery. Many hours refining his recipes and winning awards and even more hours drinking his creations with friends, Jacob created a line of craft brews he lovingly named Taildragger. The name comes from one of his first loves the PT17 otherwise know as a Stearman, you guessed it, a Taildragger airplane flown in WWII and still today.

Jacob spent hours and hours on his business plan and he and his wife looked and looked for a place to build a brewery. They came to the conclusion that the west valley was in dire need of some good craft brew and that Goodyear would be a great location. Then came some upsetting news, Goodyear did not allow for production breweries. So it took 9 more months and the collaboration of the great people at Goodyear Planning and Development to rewrite the city ordinance and allow production breweries to be built in Goodyear. Making history here folks!!! Now that brings us to recent days. He is currently opening a craft brewery!! Dreams do come true.

Meet Laura Hansen

Laura was Born in New Mexico but raised with her sister in Tonopah, AZ. Just to the southwest of Laura home was Saddle Mountain. Little did she know that just a few miles down the road her future husband also was growing up in the shadow of Saddle Mountain.

Just before going off to college, Laura’s parents bought a business called the Red Quail out in Wintersburg, AZ and renamed it the Wintersburg General Store. Throughout college Laura came home to help her parents run their business. They sold the thriving business in 1996. After graduation from NAU she taught elementary school for several years. She was introduced to Jacob by his mother (whom she worked with) and quickly fell in love. After marring Jacob and while she was pregnant with her first child her parents reclaimed the business they sold from the bankrupt couple they sold it to. Laura quit her teaching job to help her parents bring back the general store to its former glory. While rebuilding one business she and her parents created several more commercial business including a use car dealership, a beauty salon, and Tin Top Bar and Grill. This created quite the little town. They sold the commercial aspects of the town in 2006. This allowed Laura to retire and stay home with the kids (now 3 of them). After suggesting to her husband that they needed to invest in something (maybe a brewery) to help grow a legacy for their children, which brings us to today, Saddle Mountain Brewing Company was born.